TOKYO (AFX) - The Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) intends to end on April 24 its three-month-old emergency measure curbing daily trading hours by 30 minutes, The Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported.
The TSE delayed the start of the afternoon session by 30 minutes on Jan 19, commencing trading at 1.00 pm. A day earlier, it was forced to suspend all transactions after panic selling, triggered by the launch of an official investigation into Livedoor Co, came close to overloading the exchange's trading system.
Livedoor was delisted on Friday, its former president and executives having been indicted for alleged Securities and Exchange Law violations.
The TSE earlier said that it would resume normal operating hours in May or later, after its trading system upgrade is completed. But it appears to have changed the plan due to strong calls from investors and others for it to restore regular operations.
The fact that the number of daily trades has fallen to the 2.0 mln range -- far lower than the TSE's current maximum trading capacity of 4.5 mln transactions -- is also likely to be behind the exchange's decision.
A final decision will be made after monitoring this week's trading. If there is some sort of occurrence that causes the number of orders to surge during the week, the TSE may decide to stick with the abbreviated session, the report said.
/swp